


Five (or, a lot can change in a year)

by Karaii



Category: Naruto
Genre: Digital Art, Fan Comics, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 33
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karaii/pseuds/Karaii
Summary: This is a Kakashi-centric fan comic centering around the events that occurred when Kakashi was five years old, from his early graduation to his father’s suicide.Please note that this is a story about a child soldier living in a world where being raised for war is commonplace, so there is a global content warning for this sort of child abuse, gore/violence, and death.





	1. Cover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are on a phone, I invite you to read this comic [on my tumblr instead](https://ahkaraii.tumblr.com/post/168506732968/five-masterpost), as it is much easier to navigate on that device.
> 
> If you are on a computer, please carry on and enjoy :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw: Kakashi is 5 years old, Gai is 6, and Rin and Obito are 7.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: blood/gore, death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, Kakashi has a cleft lip + cleft palate. That's why he wore a mask from a young age and why he eats so obscenely fast (to avoid infection).
> 
> I imagine he does eventually get it fixed -- Rin is likely the one to help him -- but the habit of wearing a mask remains.


	4. Chapter 4




	5. Chapter 5




	6. Chapter 6




	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Gai so much ya'll ;__; <3  
> Children in the background of the Academy scene include Obito (7), Rin (7), Asuma (9), Anko (6), and Genma (8) :) The teacher is a chunin Hyuuga branch member who never developed the Byakugan.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ebisu in canon doesn't have a last name, so I extrapolated from his use of sunglasses that he could be an Aburame, but given that he doesn't use bugs, I hypothesized he's a bastard son whose mother kept him a secret until he was too old to be implanted with kikaichu. Therefore Ebisu has the name, but not the ability -- it's partly why he's so obsessed with clans and why he initially only respects highborn ninja in canon.
> 
> And yeah, that is a 9 year old Asuma :) He and Kakashi have this sort of 'manly grunt of acknowledgement even though we're children' type relationship. It's pretty cute XD


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided Minato wasn't Kakashi's first sensei, since he's only ten years older than Kakashi (which would make him 15 right now). I figure Minato got him after Kakashi became a chunin and unbearable to keep around other teams, because, lmao, Kakashi did NOT grow to be a team player XD
> 
> So Kakashi's first jonin sensei is one Aburame Shibi (22), who will one day be Shino's dad :V


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mooore of my headcanons! Rin's parents are civilian doctors who specialize in geriatrics, which means they don't see many shinobi since few of them live that long, lol.
> 
> Obito met Rin when they were toddlers through his grandma coming to get regular checkups, so that's how they became friends before the Academy :) Obito was basically Rin's eternal dummy patient growing up, so that's why she was so familiar with Obito's eyes -- enough to do freaking _field surgery_ on it at 14.
> 
> Meanwhile, the contrast between Kakashi and normal children is highlighted...


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, that is Shikamaru's future mother (Yoshino) and father (the Deer-mask ANBU, Shikaku). After the Second War ended, Yoshino was secretly sent to the Hidden Sand Village as an undercover ninja implant to infiltrate their ranks and spy on the nation for the benefit of Konoha. It was likely a ROOT thing because Yoshino was <10 years old. Long story short, Sakumo burst her cover and extracted her, revealing Konoha's deception to the Land of Wind. It's absolutely a political disaster -- doubly so because, if you may recall, Sakumo was the one who killed Sasori's parents, Chiyo's son and his wife (which I hc was the third Kazekage's daughter), so he's already a persona non grata in the Land of Wind.
> 
> This isn't the only disastrous mission Sakumo will have, but it's certainly a damn big one.
> 
> The Uchiha, btw, is Fugaku (Sasuke's dad).


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uchiha Fugaku wasn't always an asshole! Since this is before the whole 'Uchiha being blamed for the Nine Tails' incident, he's just a grumpy policeguy who is miffed at his former sensei (he was part of Sakumo's genin team) for disappearing for 5 years after the end of the Second War. We'll get into the nitty gritty details of this resentment later...
> 
> Though now he's obsessed with kid geniuses, thank you Bakashi XD;; Itachi will definitely be a product of Fugaku trying to recreate Kakashi's success as a child.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it's confusing because in retrospect I failed to make it more obvious: Sakumo's disgraceful mission coincided with the canonical mysterious disappearance of the 3rd Kazekage. In canon the Hidden Sand shinobi spent YEARS searching for their missing leader to no avail. Eventually its revealed that the one who had killed him was Sasori, who had made his corpse into his most prized puppet weapon. Recall that Sasori is the son of the couple Sakumo murdered. So...coincidence? Not in my shinobi world :')
> 
> He'd probably long killed the Kazekage and was keeping others from realizing it via his puppet arts, and figured he could take out two birds with one stone by making the Kazekage "disappear" right around the time it was discovered that one, the odious Sakumo was skulking illegally in Wind on a mission and two, that the odious Leaf had planted a deep cover spy in the Hidden Village of Sand for over ten years.
> 
> TL;DR: A revenge-seeking Sasori timed it so Sakumo, the man who killed his parents, would take the fall for the Kazekage's disappearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team 'Tsunade didn't show!' consists of Sarutobi Asuma (9), Kato Shizune (9), and Hyuuga Hizashi (11) -- Neji's future dad. He hasn’t been allowed to make chunin while his twin brother and Clan heir Hiashi hasn’t, either. He’s a very bitter boy as he's watched all his teammates get promoted while he’s had to forfeit last minute every time.
> 
> The ANBU is the owl mask is Namikaze Minato (15), Naruto's dad :3 He's in his Lost Tower outfit from the Naruto movie of the same name. Asuma's ANBU escort that hasn't been shown yet is Akimichi Choza (21), Choji's future dad.
> 
> Shibi totally asked his ANBU friends (who were scheduled to be there anyway) if they could help him out with his genin test, as it was kind of last minute that Kakashi passed and qualified as a potential genin candidate and presumably there was no jonin sensei available for him. So Shibi's just like 'Yo I'll take him...IF he passes my exam.'
> 
> His test is ANBU level lmfao XDD


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asuma isn't _quite_ the overprivileged brat Konohamaru will be at this age, but he's still a privileged little shit XD As the son of the longest-running and most successful Konohan Hokage, he's been raised alongside hand-picked playmates and protected by a high-ranking ANBU member nearly 24/7. At this time, he has an idealized view of the world, where justice and truth triumph every time.
> 
> In contrast, Hizashi was raised knowing quite keenly that he _could_ have been part of the elite but, by having been born 5 minutes after his twin brother, was instead condemned through the Cursed Seal to serve the Main family until death. He is absolutely bitterness central (and, as we well know, will someday inherit that onto his son Neji).
> 
> Being part of the same genin team, Hizashi and Asuma will clash a lot about privilege and ignorance as time goes on. Asuma will grow sour and rebellious and Hizashi will grow more subdued and quiet. You can bet your bottom dollar Asuma canonically ditching Konoha for the capital will be related to his increasing frustration with how Konoha and its elite Clans run the place.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's fun to explore what seasoned adult ninja think and feel, too, to contrast to the child geniuses and the up-and-coming baby genins. There's such an immense skill difference between them it's not even funny. But, well, this is the world they're going to be thrown into...war's a-coming.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> someone give this baby genin a headband his size lmao


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my headcanon that the Aburame Clan cycles through different Clan Heads, switching leaders whenever cicada come out of the earth. Shikuro Aburame is Torune's father (the ANBU ROOT Aburame featured in both the manga and anime). Shibi canonically adopts Torune for a while after Shikuro's death, before Danzo takes him.
> 
> Bird calls being used to summon ninja / herald special events is canon in Naruto :)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakumo vs. Shinobi politics, part one XD;;
> 
> The ANBU peanut gallery shown below are communicating via a combination of Yamanaka Mind Share and Nara Shadow Stitching. The latter is also keeping them concealed :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ANBU featured are the following:  
> Toad = Jiraiya (30)  
> Monkey = Asuma's older brother, Konohamaru's future father, currently 18  
> Snake = Orochimaru (30)  
> Boar = Inoichi Yamanaka (22), Ino's future dad  
> Deer = Shikaku Nara (22), we saw him earlier
> 
> The Konoha Council is composed of Utatane Koharu (48), Homura Mitokado (48), Danzo Shimura (47) and Hiruzen Sarutobi (47).
> 
> The other Clan Heads shown include:  
> \- Akimichi Clan Head, named Torifu Akimichi. He is a canonical Naruto character who was part of Team Tobirama in his youth. Unfortunately he was never quite able to click with his childhood genin team and thus is not in the Konoha Council despite it being composed of his former teammates.  
> \- Nara Clan Head. A terrifying, terribly sexist man, grandfather to Shikaku and great-grandfather to Shikamaru. Survivor of the warring states period, the first shinobi war, AND the second shinobi war due to sheer ruthlessness and cunning. His shadows literally eat people. His wife only bore him daughters, so thus far he has refused to pass on the title of Clan head despite being really fucking old.  
> \- Aburame Clan Head, named Shikuro Aburame. Posesses the infamous rinkaichu, intracellular parasites that are fatal through mere contact. He will be Torune's father, whom Danzo will take for his ROOT divison. In my HC he is also Ebisu's father, though Ebisu was never given the Aburame last name as his mother concealed Ebisu, fearing her child being implanted with the parasites. This makes Ebisu an Aburame bastard :'(  
> \- Yamanaka Clan Head. A relatively progressive man, lacking many of the sexist traits common in men during this time period (*cough* looking at you Nara Clan Head), he allowed his son Inoichi to marry a civilian noble he fell in love with without protest and gave them land to build a flower shop. Suffers from crippling migraines due to his technique.  
> \- Hyuuga Clan Head. Father of the twins Hiashi and Hizashi, he condemned the latter to the Branch Family without hesitation. Though not much of a warrior himself, sporting himself a poet as opposed to an active ninja, he nonetheless is often disappointed in the slow progress of his shy son Hiashi, who will echo this disappointment to his own shy daughter Hinata.  
> \- Uchiha Clan Head. Fugaku's mother, a vicious and cruel woman who takes pride in sharing blood with Madara being his brother Izuna's granddaughter. Its rumoured she killed her husband for being useless (and to gain power). Fugaku KNOWS she killed his father. He is always terrified of her and she is always disappointed in him. You can kind of see why Fugaku will develop this dynamic with his own children. (Ahh, the Uchiha clan. Where your fucked up genes only activate through severe emotional trauma...)


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :(


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... :((


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of my headcanons!  
> Kushina and Mikoto were childhood sweethearts. Mikoto has been engaged to Fugaku since she was a child, but she's actually a lesbian. She wanted to defy her family but at the end of the day she caved. Kushina was super duper heartbroken 'dattebayo :(
> 
> Kushina is bi, btw. As for their ages, Kushina is 17 and Mikoto is 19. I hc Kushina is older than Minato (15) because I like older women :V


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *continues to juxtapose the casually cute with the casually depressing as fuck*


	24. Chapter 24




	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsunade (30) is a hot mess.  
> cw: substance abuse (alcohol)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, the implication is that Hiruzen's father, the infamous Sarutobi Sasuke, destroyed the Hatake farmland and took on the orphaned Sakumo as his pupil. Was it a-la Jiraiya (in that the destruction was unintentional collateral and the adoption a result of guilt), or was it deliberate from the start...? The Sarutobi clan appears to enjoy 'collecting' other clans, after all...
> 
> (I mean, the Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clans have canonically 15 generations recieving earrings from a Sarutobi. Whose to say the Sarutobi clan haven't cajoled other clans into serving them over the years...)
> 
> And, oh, if it wasn't clear -- my headcanon is that Sakumo's genin sensei was Sarutobi Sasuke. Sakumo is a little younger than Hiruzen, so they weren't exactly raised as brothers, but the reason Sakumo has gotten away with a lot of politically iffy stuff in my convoluted background story for him (ie, marrying a foreigner from Iron, ditching Konoha after the second war for five years only to come back without real punishment, etc) is because Hiruzen has a soft spot for him.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsunade's PTSD rambling is good for exposition xD;; More on Sakumo's post Second War adventures in the next strip...
> 
> And yup, I made Sasori's mom the Sandaime Kazekage's daughter. This explains to me, at least, how Sasori managed to get close enough to kill/puppet-fy the Sandaime Kazekage at such a young age -- the Kazekage was his grandpa!  
> Sasori's father was canonically the old lady Chiyo's son, and that's why she desperately tried to kill Sakumo in this flashback. (In canon, she attacks Kakashi when she mistakes him for his father, too :V Her grudge was strong enough to last thirty years into the future!)
> 
> Sakumo is absolutely a persona non grata in the Land of Wind. You can start to see why him revealing his presence there to save the deep cover spy Yoshino has presently created a political clusterfuck.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsunade steals money from baby genin just like Jiraiya did in canon XD;;;
> 
> In my hc Kakashi's mother was a samurai :V In canon it's shown that the Land of Iron is a samurai country, and they're pretty alienated from the shinobi countries and their politics (they kind of look down on shinobi from what I can tell?). The only canonical samurai we see actively living in shinobi lands are hired bodyguards, so I figured Kakashi's mom was a young, adventurous samurai lady that wanted to get out of stuffy Iron for a while and got hired protecting Rain country farmland folk in the midst of the second shinobi war.
> 
> Sakumo abandoned Konoha for five years to be with her (a desertion that would've given him the death penalty via hunter nin had Hiruzen not vouched for him and his infant son). He really, really loved her :')
> 
> So yep, Jiraiya would've eaten up Sakumo's romantic, forbidden, and ultimately tragic relationship. I like to think Kakashi got his love of romance novels from his own nostalgic (partial) understanding of what his parents had before his birth.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Orochimaru is a total creep (as he should be). He's most certainly an ANBU ROOT operative under Danzo's supervision. The reason he was interested in Kakashi's Earth affinity is because he's looking for kids with both Earth and Water affinity for a pet project that just got greenlit. Something to do with Hashirama's Wood release hmm....
> 
> Anyway, around this time he and Tsunade are best friends -- like, for real, they are genuinely each other's closest confidant. Unfortunately this also means they enable each other's bad habits and cover for each other's indiscretions without hesitation.
> 
> This continues even after Orochimaru ditches Konoha, btw. It's the reason why Tsunade had no trouble finding and talking candidly to 100%criminal-massmurdering-Hokagekiller-fugitive Orochimaru when Naruto was running around trying to get her to become Godaime. She and him were still in amicable contact even all those years later. Its only until Naruto makes her finally chose a higher moral ground that she breaks off that unconditional friendship.
> 
> So, until then? Yeah, they are absolutely morally dubious divas together.


	29. Chapter 29




	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My HC is that Danzo (+ the Hokage) handle planning and assigning most, if not all, S-rank missions. D through A are handled by the Desk Shinobi + the Hokage collaboratively. Thus, being a legendary assassin, Sakumo's known Danzo for a long time. They're not friends AT ALL but Danzo used to respect the White Fang... until Sakumo played dead and the Hokage let it happen.
> 
> (Danzo hates it when Hiruzen plays favourites -- even though he does it too, lmao).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I made Orochimaru's first name Yashagoro as a nod towards his counterpart in the Japanese folklore "Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari", which is where the inspiration and names for Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya originally came from.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;___;


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you might get a better sense of Sakumo and Kakashi's relationship... usually warm and caring, but quite often distant and walled off. You can start to see the traces of the adult Kakashi will become -- trained to repress and resent emotional vulnerability.
> 
> As for why Kakashi's mom died...I'll leave it ambiguous, because Kakashi doesn't know what happened to her, either.
> 
> (Was she killed? Did she kill herself?  
> Did Sakumo witness it or did he only see the aftermath...?)
> 
> Whatever her end was, it crippled Sakumo...and Kakashi has had to grow up with her shadow.


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed Kakashi's mom's name from an actual historical figure -- Gozen Tomoe was a famous _onna bugeisha_ or female samurai warrior.


End file.
